Process of felting.



No. 762,234. 1 PATENTED JUNE 7, 1904. T. B. FLAVELL &' e. w. DYKMAN.

PROCESS OF FELTING.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 6, 1903.

N0 MODEL.

nome ca W SE1 a r comma W THE Nonms PErtRs cu, PHOTO-LYING WAGHWGTON, n. c.

UNITED STATES Patented June '7, 1904. i

PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS B. FLAVELL AND GEORGE W. DYKMAN, OF YONKERS, NEWV YORK.

PROCESS OF FELTING- SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 762,234, dated June '7, 1904.

Original application filed November 18, 1902, Serial No. 131,806. Divided and this application filed October 6, 1903. Serial ITO-175,971.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that we, THOMAS B. FLAVELL and GEORGE W. DYKMAN, citizens of the United States, residing in Yonkers, in the county of VVestchester and State of New York, have inventeda certain new and useful Im provement in Methods or Processes of Felting, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has relation to an improved method or process for felting, particularly useful in the making of hats; and the principal object of the invention is to supply a method whereby the felting operation is greatly accelerated without making any sacrifice in the quality of the product.

In felting processes, and particularly in thesizing of felt hats, the fabric isrepeatedly dipped in hot water, folded, and squeezed between rapidly revolving sizing rollers. The end achieved by this process is the packing of the soft loose fibers and the contracting of the whole fabric as it gains strength and body. The fibers used for hat-making before being subjected to the sizing-rollers are treated in any well-known manner to give them life and to promote the felting operation.

It is of course very. desirable that the fibers should in the course of treatment become as intimately and inextricably matted and tangled together as possible, and it is to promote this end that the first treatment to which they are subjected, as above mentioned, is re.

sorted to.

It is the main object of this invention to provide a method for promoting a prompt and efiicient intermingling of the fibers during the sizing process, and the preferred means employed in carrying out this method or process are illustrated in the accompanying drawings in suflicient detail to make the process clear. These drawings do not show all the details of the mechanism, since the machine is not claimed in this application, but is claimed in our application for apparatus for felting filed November 18, 1903, Serial No. 131,806,

of which this application is a division.

In the drawings, F lgure 1 is a front v1ew (No specimens.)

of the rollers used to carry out our process, showing their relation to any electric generator; and Fig. 2 is a cross-section of said rollers, showing their relation to a hat or other felt article while in process of sizing.

Our improved process consists in subjecting the material to be felted or sized to the simultaneous action of an electric current and of the sizing-rollers or other appropriate compressing means. This is preferably so accomplished that all parts of the material are subjected to momentary rushes of current alternating with periods of current interruption, while at the same time said material is subjected to compression in any desired manner. Our invention is not limited, however, to this specific use of the electric current.

The result of treating the material in the preferred way above mentioned is that the hairs in the various parts of the material are alternately electrified and discharged, thus producing an intimate attraction and repulsion with minute movements among the hairs while under compression. This action greatly promotes the felting operation by accelerating the process of entanglement of the component hairs. In the application referred to, of which this is a division, is described and claimed the apparatus preferably employed by usin carrying out this process, and in the accompanying drawings enough of this apparatus is shown to elucidate this subject by reference thereto.

In the drawings three rollers are shown, which are supported in hearings in the two end supports 1 and 2. These rollers are made to rotate in the same direction by means of a sprocket-chain 3, passing over appropriate sprocket-wheels 4, 5, and 6. This construction is common to many forms of well-known sizing rollers, and needs no particular description. In order to fitthis apparatus for the carrying out of our process, we supply two at least of the rollers with a metallic shell, (shown at 7 and 8 in Fig. 2,) this shell being provided, preferably, with the usual ridges 9 and being supported by a core of wood or shells are thus separated electrically and are l subjecting the material to be felted to simulleft destitute of ridges 9 at their extremities to permit of current being carried to each roller from any generatorll through brushes 12 and 13, as shown in the drawings. The third roller (shown at the lower right-hand side of Fig. 2) may or may not be constructed like the other two and may or may not receive electric current. Either direct or alternating current may be used. It is obvious that as these rollers turn in the same direction, with the material 14 to be felted lying between them, this material will be given a rapid revolution while under compression, and its various parts will be brought successively into the line of current passing through the material from roller to roller. The material being wet will permit the passage of current, which need not be of high potential. By thus causing various parts of the material to cross the line of current while under compression each part of the material is subjected while so passing the line of current to a momentary rush of current, which alternates with a period of current interruption .corresponding to the time when such part of the material is not in the line of current, and the advantages and effects above noted are attained and our process is carried out.

A variety of different means may be employed for carrying out this process without departing from this invention, which is concerned with the process or method of action by whatever means it is practiced.

' What we claim is 1. The process of felting which consists in taneous compression and action of an electric current, substantially as described.

2. The process of felting which consists in establishing a line of electric current through the material to be felted while it is subjected to the action of sizing-rollers, substantially as described.

3. The process of felting which consists in revolving the material to be felted and simultaneously passing an electric current through the same, substantially as described.

4. The process of felting which consists in revolving the material to be felted under pressure and simultaneously passing an electric current through the same, substantially as described.

5. The process of felting which consists in compressing the material to be felted while passing its various parts successively through a line of action of an electric current, substantially as described.

6. The process of felting which consists in revolving the material to be felted under pressure and simultaneously establishing a line of action of an electric current across which said material is revolved, substantially as described.

THOMAS B. FLAVELL. GEORGE W. DYKMAN.

Witnesses:

JOHN R. FLAVELL, J. WESLIE JAoKsoN, F. W. FARNHAM, THos. W. BAKER. 

